Rushing Fall sweeps to Jessamine victory

LEXINGTON, Ky. – With one sustained swoosh, Rushing Fall might well have run herself into favoritism for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with an eye-catching victory Wednesday at Keeneland.

Ridden by Javier Castellano, Rushing Fall went from 12th to the lead with frightening ease in the 27th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Jessamine Stakes, the ninth and final Win and You’re In event of the fall meet.

“Extremely impressive, but I’m not surprised,” trainer Chad Brown said afterward via text message. “She identified herself as special the first time she breezed on the turf for us.”

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Rushing Fall, a More Than Ready filly owned by e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, felt only one sting of Castellano’s whip in prevailing by 3 1/4 lengths over Stainless in a field of 14. She returned $3.80 after completing 1 1/16 miles in 1:46.20 over a course rated soft.

Closers filled the other slots on the Keeneland toteboard after all the early leaders faded down the stretch. Stainless, a 28-1 shot, was second, a head before Cash Out, with Layla Noor another 1 1/2 lengths back in fourth.

Rushing Fall entered the Jessamine with the highest Beyer Speed Figure (85) in the field after winning her lone prior start, a Sept. 16 maiden race going a mile over the Belmont Park turf. She now will head to Del Mar as surely one of the top threats for the Nov. 3 BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.

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“We are lucky to have her,” said Brown, crediting agent Mike Ryan for the $320,000 purchase for e Five Racing at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, and the Stonestreet Training Center in Ocala, Fla. , for breaking the filly. "It was a team effort.”

It was the second victory in the Jessamine for Brown, who won the 2013 running with Kitten Kaboodle.

The $2 exacta (2-3) paid $71.20, the $1 trifecta (2-3-6) returned $549.30, and the 10-cent superfecta (2-3-6-13) was worth $748.94.

Ontrack attendance on a breezy, mostly sunny afternoon was 9,475.

Racing resumes Thursday at 1:05 p.m. Eastern with the first non-stakes card of the 17-day fall meet. Thursday is Make-A-Wish Day.

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